Friends and Robbers

Sarah, Colby, and I are in Arequipa, Peru.

We left Cerro Azul with Justin, but when we arrived in the nearby down of Cañete, he became irritated because Sarah asked someone where the bus station was. He felt like we didn´t believe that he knew where he was going (because he had been there earlier that day). In reality, it was a simple question. It´s important to talk to as many people as you can in order to practice and improve your spanish. So, Justin walked ahead and we followed, but then Colby saw the bus station across the street that Justin passed. We shouted to him and he lifted his hand as if to say, "I don´t give a shit", and so we turned and he kept walking. We went to the bus station to arrange the ride to Pisco and some Peruvian women starting talking to us about a "alto(tall) gringo" who was apparently looking for us. We are not horrible people and we never intended to ditch him, so Colby went to look, but we never found him. This was quite uncomfortable. As difficult as it was to travel with him, I would never want to part ways in that fashion. He didn´t have a phone and we really had no way to find him, so we moved on.

We arrived in Pisco and arranged to take a tour of a National Reserve in the nearby town of Paracas. The tour had potential to be interesting; we saw some beautiful beaches, dolphins, and pelicans like 20 yards away from us. Unfortunately when we stopped for lunch in a fishing town, we had nothing to eat but expensive food that tasted awful. The food kind of ruined the whole tour for me. But, we ended up meeting some friendly guys from Quebec who we met up with later for drinks. This was the beginning of disaster.

Sarah, Colby, and I met a Belgium guy named Denis at our hostal and he came out to the Plaza de Armas (which is in every city and is essentially the center of the town) with us to meet Sam and Sabastian (fellows from Quebec). From there we found a bar so we could enjoy some Pisco Sours.

Random Fact: Pisco is a brandy that is made with grapes. So, it´s a liquer, but it´s like wine because they make it with grapes - I think. A Pisco Sour tastes very much like a Margarita. But better.

The six of us sat at a table and talked animatedly. I love listening to french accents and our new friends were very comical, especially with Colby there. We had a lot of fun, but Sam and Sabastian had to leave early in the morning so we exchanged information and said good night. Then, we went to this weird backyard-style bar where Denis ordered us this Pisco-Wine mixture. Soon after this, it was time for me to go to bed. Sarah and Denis went to another bar and Colby and I took a moto taxi (which is a motorcycle with this covered two-wheel attachment thing which makes it look like a tiny three-wheeled car) back to our hostal.

In the morning, the front desk of our hostal had Sarah´s bag because she had left it in the lobby at some point. She was missing her camera and about 30 Soles. We spent the better part of the day trying to figure out if we would be able to get her camera back somehow by retracing our steps and such. Around 4 o´clock in the afternoon, Sarah and Denis left to go to the last bar they attended. Sarah came back less than two minutes later and said, "I just got mugged, at gun point."

It´s one thing to be mugged in an abandoned alley after dark, but to be mugged at gun point in broad daylight with kids and people all over the street? This is ridiculous. Unbelievable. And of course, they got away with it, which will only reinforce this type of behavior. The Pisco police force were only present in the Plaza de Armas (which is BS). Most other places, there are generally police on every block. A nearby Hostal owner saw the robbery and tried to run the two guys down because if tourists are always hearing about muggings on that specific corner, no one will come to his hostal! He said that this has happened before and he caught up to the guys and told them to give him the purse. The muggers said, "I will kill you." But the hostal owner just said, "Well you better kill me because if you don´t, I´m going to kill you." And he was able to return the purse to it´s owner.

Yikes. This was quite traumatic. After dealing with the police and everything, we had to stay another night in stupid Pisco. Even though I know that could potentially happen in any city, I never want to go back to Pisco again.

Next, we took a bus to Nazca, which is famous for the Nazca Lines (if you want to know what they are, use wikipedia). Our hostal owner tried very hard to sell us a tour, but we were mainly focused on getting to Arequipa. So we spent the night and next day in Nazca before getting on a nine hour overnight bus to Arequipa. The over night bus was miserable, but we made it to Arequipa eventually after a bumpy, twisty, car-sickly sort of excursion.

Arequipa is a beautiful city. It´s the second largest in Peru has many cathedrals and massive old buildings. It is very well maintained and we have enjoyed exploring a bit. There are two Canyons nearby: Colca Canyon and Cotahousi Canyon. They actually aren´t that close, but they only way you can get to them is from Arequipa. Cotahousi is the deepest known Canyon in the world - more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. I really would like to go to Cotahousi, but it´s a twelve hour bus ride to get there and I don´t know if I´m that determined to go there on this particular trip. If I ever come back to Peru, I will definitely go to Cotahousi Canyon. Tomorrow we are going to attempt to schedule a 3 day tour of Colca Canyon, which is only five hours from here. It´s expensive, but I think it will be worth it. We get to hike into the Canyon and stay at different little towns.

After this, I believe we´ll be headed to Cuzco (another lengthy overnight bus ride) which is close to the farm we will be settling at for a while. I´m excited to be in one place for a while. Constantly moving all the time is quite exhausting.

Things I Miss From The US:

-Bathrooms with toilet paper, soap, toilet seats, and some way to dry your hands. I also miss flushing my toilet paper down the toilet, because in Peru, this is a big no no. Only human waste is permitted to go down the toilet and you are provided with a waste basket. In general, some restrooms have toilet seats, but they almost never have toilet paper or soap. And you must pay 50 centimos to use the toilets in bus stations and other public places. If you pay, they give you like the smallest amount of paper and this little reciept. I find this hystarical.

-My pillow

-My birkenstocks

-Seat belts - Most taxis do not have seat belts in the back seat

-Enforced driving laws - The driving is actually quite interesting to me. I´m curious about the accident statistics in Peru compared to the United States. Or statistics about road rage. Peruvians use their horns to warn people when they approach an intersection, to make themselves known when passing close to another car, and also in annoyance if other cars aren´t moving. But I haven´t seen many people yelling angrily. When we get cut off in the states, this is an uproar. When you get cut off in Peru, someone has simply out maneuvered you.

-Free water at restaurants - You have to pay for water, so we always bring our own

-Freshly ground coffee - Although coffee is grown all over the country, almost every place serves instant coffee. There are two options when ordering coffee 1. Café 2. Café con Leche. Coffee or coffee with milk. Well, if you were thinking that café con leche is instant coffee in water with milk on the side, you would be mistaken. They bring you hot milk to mix with your instant coffee. Some people might like it, I definitely do not. Today, Sarah and I found some nice coffee shops with espresso and peruvain coffee. It was nice.

QUICK STORY:
Today at breakfast, I was sitting in my chair and the waiter came over to deliver our coffees. All of a sudden, I fell completely through my chair. All of the wooden pieces fell through the frame of the chair and it was as if I had gotten stuck in a bucket. I wasn´t hurt, it was just so so funny. The breakfast cafe did not seem to think so. They brought over the manager who spoke english to apologize. They gave me a free breakfast. It was excellent.